Pakistan ranked fifth most dangerous country for journalists in 2013

• India takes fourth spot

The total was down from 152 deaths recorded in 2012 but there was an accompanying rise in assaults, threats and kidnappings directed at journalists which largely go unreported, said the report ‘Killing the Messenger’.

The institute, funded by major world news organisations including Reuters, has been issuing the report since 1996. Its main work is providing security training for journalists reporting in dangerous situations.

The INSI report said local journalists were the main victims, with 123 of the dead killed while covering their own country. Of the 20 who died in Syria, 16 were Syrian nationals.

“Most journalists were targeted, and shooting was the most common cause of death,” the INSI said. The report said 85 of the killed victims were shot to death. Others died in explosions, stabbings and beatings, under torture or by strangulation, or in accidents.

In 2012, 28 reporters had died in Syria, 18 in Somalia, 12 in Nigeria, 11 in Mexico and 11 in Pakistan.

As many as 134 journalists including media support staff were killed while on reporting assignments around the world last year, with Pakistan fifth on the list of countries with the most number of deaths of journalists, the London-based International News Safety Institute (INSI) said on Wednesday.

Of the 134 killed, 65 were killed covering armed conflicts – primarily in Syria, where 20 were killed, and Iraq, where the death toll was 16 – while 51 were killed in peacetime covering issues like crime and corruption and 18 had died in accidents.

After Syria and Iraq, cited as the most dangerous countries for journalists last year, came Philippines with 14 deaths, India with 13 and Pakistan with 9.

The total was down from 152 deaths recorded in 2012 but there was an accompanying rise in assaults, threats and kidnappings directed at journalists which largely go unreported, said the report ‘Killing the Messenger’.

The institute, funded by major world news organisations including Reuters, has been issuing the report since 1996. Its main work is providing security training for journalists reporting in dangerous situations.

The INSI report said local journalists were the main victims, with 123 of the dead killed while covering their own country. Of the 20 who died in Syria, 16 were Syrian nationals.

“Most journalists were targeted, and shooting was the most common cause of death,” the INSI said. The report said 85 of the killed victims were shot to death. Others died in explosions, stabbings and beatings, under torture or by strangulation, or in accidents.

In 2012, 28 reporters had died in Syria, 18 in Somalia, 12 in Nigeria, 11 in Mexico and 11 in Pakistan.